The field of the invention is theme or amusement park ride attractions. More specifically, the invention relates to wheelchair transfer devices that load and unload passengers in amusement park or theme park ride vehicles.
Theme or amusement park ride attractions have become increasingly popular. These ride attractions typically involve ride vehicles moving along a predefined path or track. Passengers enter and exit the ride vehicles in a common loading/unloading area. Generally, passengers walk across a passenger platform area and enter ride vehicles stopped adjacent to the passenger platform area. Unfortunately, passengers using wheelchairs are often unable to enjoy many of these ride attractions, due to the inaccessibility of the ride vehicle. For example, to enter the ride vehicle, passengers are typically required to step into or onto the vehicle and seat themselves. Passengers that are unable to move from a wheelchair into the seat have therefore been unable to ride.
Fortunately more and more amusement park ride attractions are becoming accessible to wheelchair-using passengers. However, these ride attractions usually require the person to exit the wheelchair. For certain individuals, one or more ride operators are needed to assist in the transfer from the wheelchair to a seat in the ride vehicle. However, some people cannot leave the wheelchair. To this end, some amusement park ride attractions are designed such that a wheelchair can be loaded onto the ride vehicle itself, thus eliminating the need for the passenger to be physically transferred from the wheelchair. This is often done with the use of foldable ramps or special lifting devices. These devices, however, can be difficult to use and take up additional space on the ride vehicle. In addition, current methods of loading the entire wheelchair with passenger onto a ride vehicle are time consuming and slow down the loading and unloading process, thus decreasing the overall passenger carrying capacity of the ride.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an amusement park ride attraction that allows a passenger using a wheelchairs to be loaded onto the ride vehicle while remaining in the wheelchair. There also exists a need for an amusement park ride attraction that allows for easy and rapid loading and unloading of wheelchair-using passengers into the ride vehicle without adding special ramps or lifting devices to the ride vehicle itself. Preferably, the wheelchair transfer device does not appreciably reduce the overall passenger throughput of the ride.
In a first aspect of the invention, a wheelchair transfer device includes a passenger platform, a ride vehicle, a lifting device, and a moveable transfer platform. The lifting device is located beneath the passenger platform. The moveable transfer platform is moveable between the ride vehicle, the passenger platform, and the lifting device.
In another aspect of the invention, a method of loading wheelchair using passengers includes the steps of lowering a moveable transfer platform to a lowered position such that a top surface of the moveable transfer platform is substantially flush with the passenger platform. The wheelchair using passenger is then secured to the moveable transfer platform. The moveable transfer platform is raised to a raised position. The moveable transfer platform is then moved to a ride vehicle where the moveable transfer platform and wheelchairusing passenger are secured.
It is an object of the invention to provide a wheelchair transfer device for use in an amusement park ride attraction that permits easy loading and unloading of passengers in wheelchairs. The transfer device preferably loads and unloads passengers in wheelchairs in a relatively rapid manner to maintain a high overall passenger throughput. The wheelchair transfer device quickly loads and unloads wheelchair-using passengers onto and off of the ride vehicle without transferring the passengers into and out of their wheelchairs.